Gotham Organization Inc., Executive vice president of development

Where is Melissa now?

Back in 2005, when Melissa Pianko got a job offer from developer Gotham Organization to be an assistant vice president, she had news for the firm's president, David Picket. She told him she was already making two times what he was offering her. When he refused to budge, Ms. Pianko swallowed her pride and took a job that she figured would give her room to grow—and prove that she was worth more.

Her bet, and a lot of hard work on her part, paid off. Within a year, Ms. Pianko got the salary she thought she deserved and became the lead executive behind Gotham's huge 1,260-unit residential development covering an entire block between 10th and 11th avenues and West 44th and 45th streets.

"I could have been quiet, but I inserted myself in meetings and negotiations and never sat on the sidelines," said the Chicago native. In fact, she not only shepherded the project to its closing of $520 million in financing in June, but also gave birth to two children along the way. Construction is now under way.

"She is an expert juggler," said Jonathan Mechanic, a partner in the real estate department at law firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, who represented investors in the Gotham project. "Whatever the problem, she dealt with it."

Prior to joining Gotham, she worked in NYC for a Denver-based redeveloper of brownfield sites, after earning her M.B.A. from Stanford. She started her career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, where she became an associate and worked for four years.

"She's unafraid to stick her nose in different areas of business and learn them on the fly," said Mr. Picket. "She is a force of nature."